Clyde you biscuit

Watched YBTJ last night on channel 232. Fascinating viewing. Must say I enjoyed Clyde's viewpoints and his approach in challenging the status quo who believe there is nothing wrong with the current MR system.

In particular, I thought Clyde hit the nail on the head when he said that owners own and run horses to win races and not for the benefit of the handicappers.

Missed the show - hopefully it will be repeated some time?

Great show - will have some comments for us to debate on later today

Will try and catch it tonight.

www.formgrids.co.za/subscriber/fgHorseHi...&hs=SHARP%20TEXAN,ZA

Perfect example of a two-year-old that was handicapped out of contention - ratings too steep for young horses without any proof that they are indeed competative at that level. The horse was never unsound (look at the amount of runs he had - he won his Maiden in a dead slow time but was rated too highly)
Clyde is correct when he says we should give three-year-olds a "trail" period to prove their ratings before letting them take on older horses.

The problem with a 'trial period' imo is that ratings only get validated when running in 'open' company; the only way to validate the ratings of juveniles is to see how they fare when they atart to run against their elders, and the same holds true for 3 year olds. So I fail to see how a trial period of running only against their own age group can 'prove; their ratings.

Frodo has hit the nail on the head. For this reason, rather than restricting 3yos to their own age group (which is extremely unlikely to ever happen), I would like to see more handicaps for 3yos only, at least in the early part of the season, to give connections a choice of whether to take on older horses or not. I would go one step further and introduce 2yo handicaps from April onwards.

However, trainers need to come to the party and run horses in these races because the operators are none too keen - as we all know - to stage races with small fields too often.

I see the value in 2 and 3 year old handicaps - rate the horses and let them prove their ratings against equal age before wasting owners' time and money by having to race their horse down(possibly break it down in the process) to get rid of a ridicuously high MR given after only one or two wins against weak opposition.

Perhaps we need some handicaps for 2 and 3 yr olds only (no older horses) and handicaps for 3 and 4 yr olds only - so the 2 yrl olds ratings can be validated against the 3 yr olds and the 3 yr olds against the 4 yr olds ratings. But then I believe the ratings should be adjusted sooner - no good to drop the youngsters a point or 2 after 5 poor runs.

No easy solution though imo.

They mainly need to look at the 3 yr old listed or graded races..running 5th or 6th in one of those puts your horse out for life.

Have a 'ceiling' on 2yr old - 3 yr old Maidens

i.e 70 for 2's and 75 for 3's.

So if a 2yr old runs within a 8 lenghts of the course record the max he can be a is 70. If i's a 3yr old than it's 75.

So if a Horse then romps home in a handicap, the gloves are off and the MR rating reverts to the previous yardstick = if that warrants a 90, so be it!

Jamster,

you either have proper ratings or you don't.
You can't start fiddling with ratings, as you propose.
Why should you give advantage to a better horse (by imposing a rating ceiling) who then 'romps home' in a handicap.
That's the ultimate dishonesty to the other runners in that handicap race.
I'd call it stealing.